Compared to July 2016, construction costs increased by 1.7%. Labor remuneration of workers grew by 4.4%, prices of building materials increased by 1.3%, while maintenance and operational costs of machinery and equipment rose by 0.5%. Compared to June, the level of construction costs in Latvia increased by 0.1% in July. Labor remuneration of workers increased…

Every fourth Latvian resident considers reducing the amount of meat in their diet or becoming a vegetarian or vegan, as stated in the latest Maxima survey. What is particularly interesting is that the largest proportion of such residents is found in Riga and Latgale. At the same time, 55% of respondents have no plans to…

The price of butter in Latvia has reached its maximum, said Competition Council chairman Skaidrite Abrame. “Prices in Latvia have definitely reached the peak. Alternatives for imports of cheaper butter are being considered,” Abrama said, adding that butter in Estonia was at least 20-30% cheaper. Abrama also notes that prices for butter have grown considerably…

Azerbaijan, taking credit for being one of the world’s oldest wine growing countries, intends to expand the export of wine to China, the world’s second-largest economy. The issue was the key topic of talks between local winemakers and the trade representative of Azerbaijan in China, Teymur Nadiroglu. Nadiroglu informed entrepreneurs about the Chinese wine market,…

The European Commission has approved Riga’s tramway infrastructure development project. As part of this project, it is planned to build the 3.5 km Skanstes tramline, which will cost EUR 97.4 million, as reported by Rigas satiksme representative Viktors Zakis. The project involves the construction of a 3.6-km tramline on Pernavas Street – Sencu Street –…

Azerbaijan’s external debt stood at $7,172.6 million (12,208.5 million manats) as of July 1, which accounts for 18.9% of the country’s GDP, said Azerbaijani Ministry of Finance. The statistics on borrowings include direct liabilities of the Azerbaijani government and contingent liabilities for loans attracted under state guarantee. Azerbaijan’s external debt consists mainly of funds raised…

In Ukraine, early cereals and pulses were harvested from 9639 thousand ha (100%) as of August 21. Farmers gathered 37224 KMT with an average yield of 3.86 MT/ha against 37948 KMT with an average yield of 3.94 MT/ha as of August 22, 2016. These included 26562 KMT of wheat harvested from 6359 thousand ha (100%)…

In January-July the production volumes of crude sunflower oil in Ukraine totaled 3.18 million tons, an increase of 36% compared with the same period last year, the State Statistics Service of Ukraine reported. In particular, in July Ukraine produced 314 thousand tons of sunflower oil, down by 30.4% MoM, but up by 46.4% YoY. Also,…

Uzbekistan’s former Deputy Prime Minister Ulugbek Rozukulov has been appointed the director general of the country’s national airline Uzbekistan Airways, a source in the airline’s management reported on August 24. Uzbekistan Airways was earlier headed by Valeriy Tyan. Uzbekistan Airways is a flag carrier airline in Uzbekistan and is wholly owned by the state. It…

Turkmenistan-China gas relationship may be viewed as one country’s over-dependence on another, Sean Roberts, an expert on Central Asia and Associate Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, said commenting on the construction of Tajik section of the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan-China gas pipeline launched last month. “On one hand, it is easy to understand why Central Asia…

Pressure on the increase of costs in the next several years will be enormous, and there are worries about the government’s ability to withstand that, said Fiscal Discipline Council’s member Andzs Ubelis. According to him, the government’s recently approved outlook on economic growth this year of 3.7% is realistic and satisfactory. Latvia’s economy is expected…

Poor households will gain very little from the recently approved tax reform. There is a large number of unemployed people, which will not the change with PIT, according to results of a study performed by Stockholm School of Economics in Riga and economic policy research center Biceps. At the same time, the reform does not…

Baltic Association – Transport and Logisics President Inga Antane describes the situation with Latvia’s transit industry as tragic. Cargo volume decline has been continuing since 2012. Antane also mentions that, looking at the recent past, 2016 was one of the worst in Latvia’s transit history. It should be added that from April onward there was…

The Board of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus (NBRB) has decided to reduce the refinancing rate from 12% to 11.5% per annum on September 13, the information and public relations office of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus reported. The interest rates on standing and bilateral transactions designed to maintain…

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has lifted restrictions on the issuance of cash in foreign currency and banking metals from current and deposit accounts through cash desks and ATMs, the NBU reported on the website. “Individuals will be able to receive cash in foreign currency or banking metals from current and deposit accounts through…

In the updated draft financial plan for 2017, PJSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” expects that in October cargo transportation rates will be indexed by 22.5%. The, acting head of Ukrainian Railways Ievgeniy Kravtsov hopes that it will be possible to switch to annual change in tariffs depending on the index of industrial prices. In his opinion, this will…

Services worth $281.9 million were rendered in H1 as part of the general contract to build the Belarusian nuclear power plant, according to the Belarusian Energy Ministry website. In H1 work continued to build the first and second power-generating units of the Belarusian nuclear power plant as well as the facilities the entire power plant…

The total proportion of grey economy in Latvia’s fishing industry may be around 40%, says fish processing company Brivais vilnis chairman Arnolds Babris. “I think its presence in the fishing industry is roughly the same as it is in the country – around 40%,” said Babris. He admits there are companies in the industry, which…

In 2017, 755 km of automobile roads have been repaired in Ukraine, the Infrastructure Ministry reports. “As of August 18, medium repairs of 756 km of automobile roads have been carried out within current financing, according to the data provided by Ukravtodor (the State Agency of Automobile Roads of Ukraine),” reads the report. The ministry…

In January-June the foreign trade deficit in goods in Ukraine reached $1.882 billion against the deficit of $727.5 million in the same period last year (up 1.78-fold), the State Statistics Service of Ukraine reported. In particular, in the January-June period the exports of commodities from Ukraine totaled $20.652 billion, up by 24.2% YoY. The import…

Overall, Latvian consumers are satisfied with the purchases they make on Internet stores. 65.3% of respondents believe Internet stores are safe and reliable. 44.7% of respondents say they have never had any problems when shopping on the Internet, according to results of a survey performed by Gudriem.lv. People who have had problems often mention two…

Belarus may close the year 2017 with the inflation below 7%, Belarusian Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov said after the government conference chaired by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko. “The inflation keeps reducing and the tendency is strong. We are slightly behind the Russian Federation in terms of the seven-month inflation rate, but we are doing better…

The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Georgia amounted to $425.91 million in January-July, up by 34.2% YoY. Azerbaijan occupies the fifth place among the importers of Georgian products, according to Georgia’s Statistics Service. During the reporting period, the supply of goods from Georgia to Azerbaijan increased by 83.5%, to $106.07 million. The share of Azerbaijan…

Industrial production in Ukraine in July declined by 2.6% YoY, against a 3.8% rise in June and a 1.2% rise in May, the State Statistics Service of Ukraine has said. The authority said that this was linked to a decline in mining and quarry development industry by 9.4%, a 10.2% decrease in the supply of…

This year, UAH 20 billion should be spent on the construction of roads, and UAH 30 billion next year, president Petro Poroshenko said. “We set a task to allocate UAH 20 billion for the construction of roads this year, and UAH 30 billion in the next year. This is the dynamics that I want to…

The current market situation shows that Latvia should speed up its education reform and think about attracting additional human resources from other countries, said Latvian Finance Minister Dana Reizniece-Ozola. “We have a number of problems. We see unemployment is in decline, dropping to 7.2% in the past three years, whereas the number of employed people…

GM Uzbekistan has announced about suspension of car production due to maintenance work. The car manufacturer GM Uzbekistan located in Asaka, suspends production from August 22 till September 10 due to the planned maintenance work, said the company’s press service. It is planned to carry out preventive inspection and maintenance of main and auxiliary processing…